


Who Is The Real Menace Here? | An Infection & Corruption AU

by AnthoAndHisShenanigans



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Corruption, Different Respawn Mechanic, Do I Even Need To Add This Tag, Don't Wanna Spoil Anything, Gen, Infection AU, Mind Control, Non-Binary Iskall, Non-Linear Narrative, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Soulmates, Possession, Ratings may change, Soul Bond, This is my own AU, Throwing in a Corruption AU cuz Why Not, We die like the hermits during turf war minigames, but not the one that is already on tumblr, but things about to get dark real quick tho, just because I feel like it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:47:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28175631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnthoAndHisShenanigans/pseuds/AnthoAndHisShenanigans
Summary: The hermits never thought a single biome can cause the world's descent into chaos and mayhem. If only they chose a different island for their shopping district, the havoc that rained down would've been spared. If only they knew the purple-ish grey fungi are sentient sooner, they wouldn't even set foot onto the island.~This AU is inspired by mysticalfriendlyintrovert's Infection AU on Tumblr. Check her blog out, there's some really nice AUs there.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	1. "Perhaps that is the reason no mob spawn on mooshroom island..."

**Author's Note:**

> Can't believe my first Hermitcraft fic is a full blown AU. Anyways, disclaimer, I'm not trying to paint any hermits in a bad light by making some of them evil, I'm just having fun with the whole ConVex idea *cough* I'm also just really craving some more evil Scar content & waiting for them to bring back ConVex for the season *cough*
> 
> Also in this AU, the hermits aren't the same as past seasons'. In fact, every season's are different incarnations and the past memories can't be fully obtained, only via small flashbacks that can be triggered by certain stuff. And past relations are still a thing because they're soul bonded. For example, the NHO from Season 5, in this fic Doc, Etho, Beef & Bdubs had a soul bond that carried through "seasons", they're basically platonic soulmates in short.

Grian’s eyes darted back onto the block in front of him, despite how much he wanted to get the work of building his barge. The purple-ish, fungi-covered block of dirt seemed to be calling out for him, grabbing whatever span of attention left in him after a long day of building. The builder set his shulker box full of stocks for the newly renovated shop down, those brown eyes never leaving the mycelium block.

He can’t tell if it’s just his imagination or if the patches of mushrooms latching tightly onto the dirt block are actually luminescent. The faint glow became more and more intense as the sun sets, slightly lighting up his build. _Maybe that’s why no mobs spawn on the mushroom island._

Grian was snapped back to reality when he heard the telltale shrieks of the phantoms preying on him. The navy blue sky turning baby blue in merely seconds just as Grian pulled out his bow and starting to take aim at the flying mob.

“What was I doing again?” Grian mumbled to himself as he tried to gather his thoughts, he looked around, noticing the rogue shulker box on the ground. Oh yeah, restocking the barge, he thought to himself before picking it up and put it in with the other few shulker boxes full of gravels.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that was the final task on his list, the sigh was quickly interrupted by a yawn. When was the last time he had slept? He honestly couldn’t remember. He had been letting his projects and builds taking over his mind, neglecting some basic necessities like sleep or sometimes even food.

And considering the fact that almost all the hermits relied on Bdubs with sleeping and skipping the nights, most of them, including Grian, don’t even consider sleep as a necessity, only going to sleep after running their body into the ground or sometimes just letting themselves pass out from exhaustion.

He dug through his inventory; a small noise of accomplishment escaped from him when he finally found his flight rockets. He took off and activated his elytra, letting him gliding through the sky.

He let himself relax and let his eyes wander around the shopping district, taking in the sight of the organized mess, clusters of colorful and unique shops bringing out the nature of Hermitcraft, different kinds of personalities coming together as a community.

Grian smiled at the thought but no matter what, the shopping district is still a mess and in need of someone to keep it organized. He could barely hear a voice in the back of his head, a babble of nonsensical whispers that he can’t quite make sense of.

He shook his head, trying to get rid of the thought. His head was pounding with the thought and he didn’t exactly need that when he’s exhausted. The voice finally left him alone when he flew away from the proximity of the mushroom island. The rest of the flight was a blur, Grian just let himself go into autopilot mode.

Those dark-brown eyes lit up when he saw his neighbor, Mumbo, running around the shrine of Hermit Challenges buried in the jungle, doing… something Grian can’t put his fingers on. A mischievous grin grew wide on his face as he thought of ways to mess with his friend; as revenge for making him steal the doors of the hermits.

_What if he makes Mumbo run for mayor without the mustached man’s knowledge? That’ll be fun._


	2. The Creation, The Start, The Root

“Scar, you look nice up there.” 

He never thought he’ll be hearing those words coming from his peer. Of course there will be competitors, how can he not think that through? 

The tall diamond throne loomed over the two builders, both figuratively and literally casting shadows onto the hermits and the shopping district. The power luminated by the throne was enough to drown out anything, yet the might of the man sitting on it wasn’t overshadowed. In fact, it was amplified, like an accent being added onto a bold color. And the ominous glows of light emitting from above the throne did nothing but to prove the point. 

Grian hastily pulled out a “Mumbo for Mayor” poster from his inventory, putting it up so it's in the sights of both of the builders. “Don’t get any ideas, remember there’s only one piece of facial hair that’s gonna end up on that throne.” Grian tried to say with a humorous tone to hide his mild frustration undertone. He can see Bdubs eyeing him in his peripheral vision. 

He can’t blame his friends, actually anyone at all, for having the urge of fighting over the diamond throne. He gotta admit that the pile of cold blue gems was irresistible, and the power that comes along with it was just adding onto the urge. 

“I feel at home up there” Scar said with a content smile, the hand on the armrest fiddling with the diamond. “You look at home up there.” Bdubs smiled back in reassurance. The smile on Scar’s face grew cocky at the words, his eyes moved from the diamonds around him to outside of the town hall, looking down at the ever-growing shopping district. 

_Oh how he wants the direct control over the land..._

Grian could’ve sworn he saw Scar’s emerald green eyes was glinting blue for a split second. 

“Scar! Get down!” This supposedly light hearted tone was nowhere to be found, only the bitter snarl that snapped Scar out of his trance. A pregnant silence followed; the smiles on Scar’s and Bdubs’ faces quickly dropped as their eyes darted to the shorter brunet. Grian can feel the tension growing thick in the air, the silence and the glare from Bdubs were starting to eat up Grian’s soul. 

“Sorry, I was a little attracted to it. The diamonds were just calling out for me.” Scar was the first one to break the silence, stepping down from the throne; his eyes still unwilling to avert from the ice blue gems. 

The green eyes turned to his friend, who shot him a concerned glance. _Is_ _Grian_ _alright?_ He could tell from the shorter man’s gesture. The taller builder sighed as he slowly shook his head; mouth twisted into a pained smile. He wasn’t sure about the answer too. 

"Should I be concerned over the fact that I have almost no memory of sitting on the throne?" Scar let out a small, nervous chuckle, he mumbled in a voice so small that none of his friends heard it. 

“We’re all a little delirious, am I right?” Bdubs forced out a chuckle, he can no longer stand the tension in the air. “Yeah, a week worth of building is making all of us a bit crazy and cranky.” Scar added. 

Grian blinked a few times in response, staring blankly at the two men for seconds – not long enough for Grian himself to notice, but certainly long enough for Scar’s and Bdubs’ concerns to grow – before hastily replying. “Yeah, right... I think we should go now.” Both of the builders in front of him nodded in agreement. 

He exchanged goodbyes with the pair before locating a portal, the pair chose to stay behind for some cleanups. Though Grian was sure all the work was done. 

_It’s been a week already?_ Grian asked himself as he made his way to the nearby nether portal. The past few hours were a blur, though he remembered the vivid memory of getting into somewhat of a discourse over the mycelium. Apparently, the hermit’s distaste for the purple fungi was more than just dislikes over the block’s texture and appearance.

He can't help but sigh, it isn't uncommon for the hermits to dislike the block but something about Scar is different. He shook his head clear, he just wanted to get back to his base and get some rest as soon as possible.


	3. A Flash From The Past

“This diamond throne is reminding me of something... I feel like I used to have a similar diamond throne?” Scar mumbled, running his hands along the diamond block. 

It wasn’t rare that the hermits find themselves in situations where they feel a surge of familiarities when they don’t even have any memories of it. Some said that those are glimpses back at their past incarnations, only able to be triggered by familiar events or objects. Although, as for now, no one can be completely sure and that so far, no one has been able to reawake any major pieces of memories from their past incarnations. 

“When I was building this, I was thinking of you actually. This is something I haven’t told anybody about.” The shorter brunet explained with an amused yet fond smile, gesturing at the throne then at the other hermit. 

“Well, that’s something.” Scar chuckled. He didn’t know how to respond to Bdubs’ words, he never thought about running for mayor, heck, he doesn’t even know how to be a mayor. No matter how much he felt attached to the diamond throne. 

“The fact that all the mycelium hasn’t been replaced with grass, does that drive you nuts?” He gestured at the mycelium covering the shopping district, littered with patches of green grass as the hermits’ futile attempt to replace the ugly purple fungi. The taller man looked at the landscape in grimace before nodding in response. 

“I think you’ll make a good mayor. You’re the person that can beautify this island and get rid of these horrid fungi.” While it is true the almost all the hermits, to several degrees, hated the very kind of block that made up by far their most important district. Though most of them found ways to ignore or tolerate it, Scar and Bdubs aren’t one of them for sure. 

“You never really mention anything of it but seeing you up here, on the throne...” The green-eyed burnet can’t help but sat back onto the throne as Bdubs continued. The other hermit stood up from the tiled floor, letting his eyes take in the view of his friend sitting on the throne. 

“I actually quite like sitting up here.” Scar hummed, shifting in the seat when he felt like he’s about to blend into the blue of the diamonds with his armor. Yeah, maybe he can get used to this. 

“I’m not sure... I mean I know nothing about mayoral campaign...” The man grew quiet as he went on, the insecurity seeping into his usual confidence filled voice. “Can you be my campaign manager?” Scar asked quietly. 

“Yes I’ll be your campaign mayor!” Bdubs’ smile was enough of a reassurance for Scar, the confident voice rang through the town hall. “Good, ‘cause I don’t know how to be a mayor.” Scar can only chuckle, even though he highly doubted that people will vote for him. 

The shorter builder joined in with the chuckle but the disappointment that was written all over the place was impossible to miss. At least they can have fun running for mayor no matter the result, right? 


	4. Mumbo For Mayor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter pog

“Mumbo Jumbo, our future mayor” Grian greeted his confused friend with a mischievous grin and an exaggerated bow.

“Grian, what are you talking about?” Grian can’t suppress his laugher anymore as the confusion on the no-longer-mustached man’s face grew. Mumbo sighed as he waited for his platonic soulmate’s laughter to die out but he just can’t seem to get mad at the gremlin.

“Yeah, by the way, you’re now running for mayor!” The builder stated nonchalantly, as if he didn’t just start a mayoral race solely for the purpose of pranking his best friend. “What now?” Mumbo chuckled; the confusion was still there yet he can’t help but gave into Grian’s shenanigans.

“Guess I’ll just need to run with it now since these are already all over the shopping district.” Mumbo shook his head in defeat but he looked at the “Mumbo for Mayor” posters that had been plastered all over the town. He can’t just let Grian’s work all go to waste, the amount of work Grian put into this not-quite-small prank left him defenseless.

“Do we have anywhere to discuss the matter at?”

“Oh yeah, I built a headquarter.” Grian gave Mumbo some firework rockets before activating his elytra and taking off. The taller man hastily took off too, internally praying that he doesn’t lose sight of his friend.

Mumbo started laughing as soon as the headquarter entered his sight, a mustache-shaped building that is almost impossible to miss on a lone island that he didn’t remember being there when he flew over from his base a few days ago.

“It’s like the worst supervillain base ever” Mumbo exclaimed, loud enough for Grian to hear even with the sound of fireworks. Grian can felt himself chuckling nervously yet he can’t be sure why, something –an unfamiliar voice – that felt like statics at the back of his head suddenly grew loud for just minutes before returning to its usual state. Strange, but it’s not like he knew what was happening.

Both of them landed on the balcony, the redstoner sat in front of the meeting table placed in the middle of the minimalistically decorated room with the builder on the opposite side. “So… What’s our plan?”

Grian only slid the campaign poster across the table to him. Mumbo looked up from the poster, visibally puzzled. “The poster is the plan!” Grian said in his signature cheery tone. Silence and an unimpressed look were the only reply from Mumbo.

“Fine, I don’t have a plan!” Grian finally admitted. To be fair he didn’t exactly think he’ll need a plan until he realized others will be running for mayor too. He was hoping that the other hermits will go as his plan and elect Mumbo as the mayor. The fact that Mumbo now sold his signature mustache and away didn’t help either.

“Actually, I think I have a plan but first, can you put this on for me?” Grian snapped his finger as he finally came up with something. Mumbo hesitated for a while before nodding. “Sure, what is it?” He asked, finally glad that this meeting is actually going somewhere.

The smile on his face dropped when Grian slid a paper bag with a poorly drawn face on it to him. Mumbo gave Grian an annoyed yet defenseless glare before putting on the paper bag, barely able to see through the holes that Grian cut out. “You look much better! I’d vote for you.” Grian chimed.

“Our plan right now is for you to get your mustache back.” The shorter man stated. “I don’t care what it takes, go and beg Tango if you have to, buy it back or something.” He continued, standing up from his chair and made his way to the other man.

“I don’t know what you got to do but your job here is to get your mustache back from Tango.” He clasped his hands onto Mumbo’s shoulder before taking off from the balcony as soon as he got the words to Mumbo, leaving Mumbo in the headquarter, unsure if what had just happened was a dream or not.

The redstoner can’t be sure whether this whole mayoral campaign was just an elaborate prank from Grian as revenge for making him steal all the doors in hermits’ bases or if Grian really thought of him as being capable enough to bring order to the disorganized shopping district.

* * *

He never thought he’ll be creating an artificial intelligence just for the mayoral race but yet here he stood. The way Grian brought up the topic was… strange to say at least, how his thoughts immediately wandered to creating something so complicated instead of just hiring or even just asking another hermit to help them out.

He stood at the platform the builder set up, looking up at the shell of what he had assumed was supposed to be the “Grumbot” that Grian had mentioned in a meeting they’ve had just a few days ago. The redstoner wasn’t exactly surprised by the speed of the builder, it’s Hermitcraft after all, they’re known for being quick and efficient.

Mumbo chuckled to himself at the appearance of the robot, his signature mustache and Grian’s iconic fringe being the key features of Grumbot making it almost impossible to not think of his platonic soulmate, not that he has anything against it.

He shook his head, clearing his mind in preparation for figuring out the artificial intelligence’s design. Sure he has his fair share of making complex redstone machineries from scratch all by himself but an AI is something else, something entirely different from a gigantic moving slime block machine.

He walked into the space that was intended for all the redstone circuits, it felt weird for him, walking into something that’ll be giving him mayoral campaign advices, something that’ll be able to make its own decisions far better than what him and Grian will be able to come up with.

He set down his shulker box full of redstone supplies, pulling out papers that were essentially a blueprint and started to work his magic.

It was when he was hours into the project that he found something what he’ll consider odd. He was reconfiguring the facial expression of Grumbot when he found strange pockets of mycelium and mushrooms founding their way into Grian’s “fringes”.

He stared at them in confusion and amusement as he tried to think of a reason that made them end up in somewhere so trivial. The weather for the past few days were a bit windy but he highly doubt that the wind was strong enough to be blowing the fungi off the ground and land on a platform that was so far away from the main island.

Maybe it was already on the sea lanterns that the builder used, who knows how much dirt or mycelium could be hiding in Grian’s jumper considering the amount of building he had been doing on the mooshroom island recently, Mumbo thought to himself before the communicator in his pocket buzzed.

_< Grian> Hey Mumbo!! _

_< Grian> How’s Grumbot doing so far? _

_< Grian> Meeting in 3 days? _

Mumbo’s eyes quickly scanned through the messages. “Time to get back to work.” He said to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to ArtByEcho/Creamed Cocoa for helping me out with some details & catching up with other hermits' content!
> 
> Check her out on Youtube, she makes cool drawings:  
> https://youtube.com/channel/UC7AIxIGHyMeFWYzas-0JRzw


	5. Get Gorgeous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter took longer than I thought to finish but hey, at least the chapters are getting longer and longer

There they stood, the opposite sides of the platform, the edges of the huge slab of white concrete just right outside of their mayoral campaign headquarter. Both of them had just arrived, elytras still folding back up as they waited for one of them to start the conversation.

Mumbo still doesn’t know to break the news about how he just brought a new competition into the very race that they had neither strategies nor plans to win with.

_~a few days ago~_

He walked along the rocky path that leads to the hermit challenges shrine. It was one of the area that he hasn’t been at for quite a while now that he had set the hobbit lifestyle aside in favor of working on his base.

He has to admit his admiration for Iskall’s work on revamping the shrine, the barometer was something he didn’t expect. Actually, he didn’t even expect a revamp at all, he only hoped for his friend to get rid of some of the trees that were in their way and maybe clean up the ever-growing vines, not a barometer for sure.

“Mumbo!” A clasp onto his shoulder made him jump no matter how much time Iskall does it to him, sometimes he thinks Iskall is deliberately doing it just to get the reaction from him.

“Geez you look awful.” Mumbo can tell that his companion was trying their best at suppressing the urge of just bursting into hysterical laughter and completely throw the plan they had out the window but the dead tone was still as powerful as anything else.

“I’ve been around enough reflective surfaces but still, thank for the input.” He replied with the same amount of enthusiasm in Iskall’s words.

“And I’d love to take partial credit for that.” They continued, the devilish smirk on their face only grew as Mumbo groaned in annoyance. “But hey we don’t have time for that right now.” Iskall guided -for Mumbo, it felt more like friendly shoves- their soulmate in front of the barometer.

“It’s time for hermit challenges!” Mumbo cheered, man he miss saying those words out loud. “Hermit challenges, yay.” Iskall echoed as always - though whether the enthusiasm was real or just a mockery, Mumbo still can’t tell – as they both skipped around the fire at the dead center of the jungle themed shrine.

Both of them stop dead on their track as they saw a figure in pink flying towards them. The silence was quickly replaced with cheers as they watch Stress circling the shrine, landing gracefully on front of both of them.

“Stress, you’re here!” Iskall cheered, can’t exactly contain their excitement. “Ready for whatever challenges you two are gonna come up with.” She replied with a grin, taking off her elytra.

“But before that, can we all take a moment to laugh at Mumbo?” Stress giggled as she spotted the yellow belt sitting on Mumbo’s high waisted jeans. “Oh yeah.” Whatever Iskall was trying to say was completely lost in laughter. “I mean it’s a good change of pace that someone finally isn’t laughing at my appearance but still…”

“Anyways.” The brunette cleared her throat and clasped her hand together “Hermit challenges aye?” A pair of raised eyebrows facing directly at the yellow belted man. “Oh yeah.” He never thought they’ll be going way off track that quick.

“So basically I challenge Stress, Stress challenges Iskall & Iskall challenges me.” Mumbo stated before fumbling through his inventory for sheets of paper to write down the challenges. “Oh great, more randomness.” Iskall mumbled.

“I change the rules every single time, we all know this.”

“Fine.” Iskall shrugged with a chuckle as Stress burst into giggles. “Wait so we’re directing challenges?” The laughter slowly died down as the question was asked. Mumbo replied with a nod.

It took a while for the three of them tried to think of a challenge for each other. Laughter and banters were exchanged as they filled the otherwise awkward silence, catching up with each other’s current projects and laughing at the absurdity of the appearance of the now mustache-less Mumbo.

“And I think that’s it.” Mumbo mumbled as he set the quill down beside him, finally deciding on his challenge for Stress. Run for mayor. He chuckled to himself at the fact that he’s dragging his friend into the chaotic mix that they called the mayoral race before folding the paper in half and handing to the brunette.

The papers were passed and the challenges were all assigned. Iskall groaned in annoyance after their paper had unfolded, Use a stack of diorite in a gorgeous way. They knew the display of their strong hate towards the stone variant was doomed to be the running joke for all the hermit, yet it still gets him all the time.

A smirk grew on their face as they remembered the challenge they gave to the other redstoner. The cybernetic eye followed said redstoner’s eyes, which were scanned the text on the paper. They can’t help but laughed as he shot a glare up from the paper to them. The smirk only grew into a taunting grin.

Do Iskall’s challenge for them, Mumbo had read the paper for at least five times and the challenge stayed the same all these times. He was both impressed by how his friend cheated the system, and annoyed by the fact that he now has to do whatever challenge they got. And the grin on the bearded redstoner’s face can only mean suffering for Mumbo.

The hysteric laughter beside both of them caught both redstoners’ attention. As ridiculous as hermit challenges goes, they still had not heard laughter like this before. That made Iskall wonder what challenge Stress got.

“I got “run for mayor”, can you imagine me as mayor?” As if Stress can read Iskall’s mind, her laughter died down so she can catch her breath before finally revealing her challenge.

“I mean the thing is that like currently I don’t have many friends in the mayoral race in a minute and I don’t really know what I’m doing.” Mumbo explained hastily with a nervous chuckled, his voice dying down as he spoke.

“So yeah congratulations, you’re now running for mayor” A smile appeared on the mustached man, not knowing what will come.

~

“Good to see that mustache is back on your face again.” The builder pointed out, quite surprised that he was able to get it back from Tango.

“I mean you did ask me to get it back no matter what.” Mumbo shrugged, hand absentmindedly started running along the facial hair that’s finally back on his face.

Grian chuckled softly before turning to see the giant robot behind him, the right timing, just as the setting sun and the orange sky casted a beautiful shadow onto Grumbot. “He looks so majestic.” Grian said in awe, eyes transfixed onto him and the redstoner’s creation.

“Yeah he does.” Mumbo’s eyes also on Grumbot, the faint glow of the AI’s facial feature only complimented it. He turned to see the co-creator of their creation. Saying that Grian was in awe would be an understatement, the admiration in his eyes more akin to a mother staring lovefully at her child.

Mumbo giggled softly before taking their creation back into his view, suddenly proud of his ability to develop the artificial intelligence. The pair was only snapped out of their thoughts by the telltale shriek of phantoms and the swoop of their wings.

Mumbo was ready to pull out his sword right before the night sky was back to a light blue and both their communicators beeped.

“I think we should get back on the meeting.” Grian said, looking at Mumbo, waiting for his reply.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve finished building up all the redstone and I’ve developed artificial intelligence making use of redstone and I’m quite proud of myself on that it took two days.” Mumbo explained.

“You said that like two days is enough for anyone else to develop an AI too.” the brunet chuckled. “Anyways, time to see what your redstone magic does.”

“Okay, so you’ll need to write your question on a diamond before feeding into it-” Mumbo’s explanation was quickly cut short by Grian’s concern. “Wait, you’ve designed a machine that we have to pay to use?”

“I mean, I thought it probably has feelings too, it is an artificial _intelligence_ , it probably doesn’t want to do it for free.”

“Should we start asking it question?” The redstoner continued. “Yeah sure.” Grian pulled out his quill, quickly jotting down the question on the blue gem.

_What is our campaign slogan?_

Both the creator waited, anticipating their creation to be actually functional.

_**Mumbo for Mayor** _

“He got it right!” Grian exclaimed, a soft smile on his face. “Okay, time for another question.”

“What is the meaning of life...” Grian mumbled to himself as he wrote the exact words down.

“Wait what?” The question caught Mumbo off guard, he highly doubt that asking the AI a question about life and existence will go smoothly.

_**Mumbo for Mayor** _

“Is that the meaning of life? It could be. I certainly feel like it is the meaning of life.”

“I think it is the meaning of life for Grumbot”

Mumbo wasn’t sure that it was a good idea to ask this question. If the answer was indeed Grumbot’s meaning of life, how will the robot react if he lose the mayoral race.

He didn’t like to think of the chance of him losing yet it was certainly possible.

_What will happen to Grumbot if Mumbo fails?_


	6. The Grass Will Always Be Greener

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a late update as I was juggling between server managing, drawing, and preparation for my new semester so yeah, I swear the new chapters will come faster 'cause I've been writing those scenes separately.

The wolf hybrid sat on the dock in front of his small cabin settled on the middle of his loser island, legs dangling just above the surface of the water, those sandals bringing the seawater up in splashes with every small kick.

Fingers tracing, caressing the fur on the red-ish cow sitting beside him. Mindlessly grooming the short fur as both of them stared at the setting sun. Orange lights casting a glint onto the blue sunglasses.

He turned his face to meet with Pamela’s, with a soft and caring smile even if he highly doubted the bovine can tell what the expression meant. But that didn’t matter, not for Ren as long as the cow’s life have been saved from the slime’s hands.

He didn’t want to think much of the whole situation, didn’t want to think of what could’ve happened to Pamela, didn’t want to think of the suspicious bottle of potion Doc had handed to him before the wrestling match; he didn’t want to think much other than the fact that Pamela is back.

His hand still on the skin of the mooshroom cow, suddenly realizing how calming it is to be just doing nothing but running his hand through the red and white fur. Or at least until he found a small glob of blue slime in the well-groomed fur, grumbling in annoyance as he tried to get rid of the slime.

God, that’ll be a pain to get rid of.

~

It was a weird phenomenon, watching the shopping district being covered with posters in a blink of eyes, all these eye-catching posters talking all about the mayoral race that popped out of nowhere.

It was a weird phenomenon, watching the hermit dropping the word ‘promise’ here and there just to be the one sitting on the diamond throne. Posters, slogans, and promises plastered all over the island, no shops were spared from the abundant number of posters.

**Mumbo for Mayor**

**Vote @joehills for Dogcatcher!**

**False for Mayor**

**Get Gorgeous**

**Vote Scar for a goodtime**

It was a weird phenomenon, even by the standard of Hermitcraft.

~

“I don’t think we’re going to win the race.” Mumbo sighed as he looked at his competitor’s poster.

“What do you mean?”

Mumbo didn’t reply, just silently handing his friend the posters of the candidates. There’s no way we’re able to win this, Mumbo thought.

~

Scar stood in front of the diamond throne, the ominous light hitting the surface then reflecting from the surface of the light blue crystals, making it glows under the light. He knew he shouldn’t be here, completely disregarding the wall of gravel keeping outsiders away.

But he just can’t help himself, the reoccurring thoughts about the diamond throne clouding his judgment. He sat in front of the throne, taking in the view of the throne that has been haunting him in his dream, making him wonder what exactly happened in his past life.

The diamonds, the power, _even the light blue glazed terracotta in front of the throne looked familiar._

~

“Why could you even think that? We’re doing so well! Look at how many of them are wearing their own ‘Mumbo for Mayor’ t-shirts!” The campaign manager gestured at the already empty chest that used to be storing all the aforementioned t-shirts.

“We’re giving away diamonds!” The election candidate exclaimed.

“But that’ll guarantee us votes!”

  
“Are you implying that we’re going to be buying votes?” Even though the mustached man didn’t have a clue about how the mayoral race works but he can be sure that buying the votes is unethical.

~

“Scar…” The voice of his campaign manager was quiet, he knew the reason behind it. It wasn’t to not startle the soon-to-be mayor; it was to prevent alarming the other hermits.

He saw Cub being nearby before walking in, who knew what will be on the news if a mayoral race candidate was caught trespassing into the town hall?

“I know I’m not supposed to be here.” Those emerald green eyes still transfixed on the icy blue.

“Cub was right outside, imagine what will be the news headline tomorrow?” Bdubs hissed as he made the final adjustment to the gravel wall, making sure that no one could tell it was being broken into from far away.

~

“Mumbo, calm down. Look, things are going to work out just fine.” Grian’s attempt at trying to get Mumbo to stay calm even as the mayoral race was a mess was futile. The redstoner’s mind was being occupied by what-ifs.

~

“Fine, I’m sorry.” Bdubs could hear the slight pout in Scar’s voice before seeing the taller man turning around to meet him, revealing a freshly needled suit under the green robe he was wearing for the past couple of months.

“Does this make up for it?” Scar asked before dropping the robe, letting the campaign manager to be able to get the full view of the tailored suit. The pristine white shirt peeking out under the purple blazer, red bowtie sitting right in front of his shirt collar. Yellow-black striped dress pants and dark brown leather shoes to top it all off. “How do I look?”

“Like the future mayor of the shopping district.” Bdubs replied with a confident grin, with Scar’s makeover and his neatly designed campaign poster, he was feeling more confident at the mayoral race than ever.

~

“What if we lose?” The taller man questioned quietly, barely louder than a murmur, yet still being able to be picked up by the builder.

“We won’t. The only thing we need a slogan.”

~

“Our new slogan and campaign promise, trees and cats for all.”

“Sounded great, promising to beautify the shopping district.” A small smile appeared on Scar’s face at Bdubs’ approval, finally feeling that maybe he wasn’t that bad at these campaign nonsenses after all.

~

Mumbo still can’t grasp on the confidence in his friend’s voice, that didn’t sound like the Grian he knows. No matter how brilliant the brunet’s ideas are, he was never the one to be this confident. The tone felt odd, it didn’t sound like false confidence too, something’s just… off, but he can’t quite point his finger at it.

“…Mustache for all?” The candidate suggested timidly, even he himself thought it was a bad one, immediately face-palming himself and a disgruntled groan escaped from his throat. “Look, I’m really bad at this.” The redstoner kept on rambling.

“I mean, it’ll be an honor to have that iconic piece of facial hair on my face.” Grian chuckled, his hand reached up to run his fingers over the now empty space between his upper lip and nose. He missed the

“Would it work? I mean, look at Scar’s and False’s, promise to beautify the district, Scar even wants to get rid of the mycelium entirely!”

“To be honest, I don’t get the hate on the mycelium. It’s unique and looks quite alright.” Mumbo eyes widen in surprise at Grian’s admission, never thought of the builder can not only tolerate the ugly carpets of mycelium but also appreciate its uniqueness.

It’s just some weird looking fungus. How good can they look? he thought to himself.

~

“The mycelium, they just look ugly in general. They don’t fit into the theme, the wild patches of mushrooms growing on it look disgusting, the rancid smell. And not to mention how they’ve covered up the green luscious grass. And I’m gonna be the one to change that.”

~

“Though I wouldn’t say it looks quite alright, yeah it is quite…unique.”

Grian snapped his finger, eyes lighting up as he exclaimed. “Hey! That could be our campaign promise, preserving the mycelium! It’s different from all their other promises, it’ll stand out just well”

“Yeah, I hope so.” The light in the shorter man’s eyes made Mumbo heart ached, the hopes of getting his best friend to become the mayor never left him as he tried his best at coming up with solutions to get their campaign out of sticky situations.

Now Mumbo is even more afraid of losing the election.

_Great._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I am aware that Grian hates mycelium, everyone hates it, it so damn ugly but it's for the plot so don't murder it for it.


	7. The Blue Crystalized Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is terrible, I know. It was supposed to play on vex magic/light blue glazed terracotta.
> 
> By the way, I've chosen to replace the season concept cuz it won't work in an irl setting.

Good god…

His eyes widened at the sight of the crystals growing bigger and messier, completely disregarding the stone brick wall he built a while ago to contain the growing crystal. The last time he checked, it was only barely spurting out from the sandy ground but now, saying that it’s overgrown will be an understatement.

He never thought they’ll get out of hand  _ that _ bad, he really shouldn’t be trusting a sketchy wizard living in the jungle, that was partially his fault. He should’ve disposed those crystals after what happened last time anyway...

Well, actually.

He wasn’t even sure what had happened last time. He was just at Scar’s place, with some diamonds to spare and some magical crystals to inspect.

***

He eyed the wizard with suspicion, he wasn’t sure when is the last friend he saw the friend of his but he wasn’t expecting Scar to become a wizard. It was weird, sure, but it wasn’t like he had much to question. 

Cub remembered the small, almost unrecognizable rush of magic through his veins, for some reason, it felt... familiar. He can feel the effects of the crystals overlapping with each other, the magic amplifying as he saw the crystals started to glow in his peripheral vision.

Everything felt like a blur, he can vaguely remember Scar relocating his barely moving yet full conscious body to somewhere dark before his vision blacked out.

He felt his eyes slowly blinking open at the harsh sunlight beaming directly at his eyes, as if it’s just there solely to force his eyes open...which was strange, he was in a dense jungle... How was it even possible?

There was nothing other than the blinding sun in his vision, not even the wizard himself. He strained his eyes to try to search for other clues as to where he was, nothing but a lone tree came into view.

He slowly sat up from the ground, only then realized that the soft grass was long gone and was replaced by the sensation of the hardened clay. Where was he? The question was answered as his brain fully registered the mesa plateau.

A wooden cabin sitting beside a small lake caught his attention.

He didn’t remember seeing any structure in any of the mining mesa he was at, let alone a cabin! A surge of nostalgia that he can’t quite understand flooding him as he walked around, memories that he doesn’t even remember having flashing in front of his eyes.

Was he hallucinating? He can’t tell.

It didn’t seem like a bad idea to inspect the building in front of him, he was sure he’ll be able to get some clue out of it in some way. Everything looked familiar in an uncanny way, he had no recollection of this place but something in his mind won’t stop nagging him that, maybe, he’s been here before.

“Cub’s mail box?” He read out, hand tracing the perimeter of the sign as he made sure the mail box was indeed real instead of an imagination. How is that possible? Was all of these just an elaborate joke that Scar pulled on him?

He knew that there’s another possibility, that this belonged to another Cub, the Cub that had been long gone. He didn’t exactly believe in the myth about reincarnation the other hermits believe in. It was too outlandish, even to the standard of the crazy reality they live in. But right now? That’s the only thing he can rely on for things to make sense right now.

Still, that didn’t answer the question of how did he get  here. It was impossible to find any structure that was built by the previous incarnations, he had tried to find them before and it was fruitless. There’s no way Scar developed time travel, right?

“Wizard what have you done?” He wondered out loud, just hoping for a slim chance that, yes, this was just hallucination, and that Scar will reply to him, to pull him back into the present, the reality he never  wants to leave again.

It was unsettling, knowing that he’s stranded in the past. The loneliness started to creep in too as he wandered around and seeing no signs of life other than all the structures, it felt as if he was in a  ghost town .

He wanted to just scream, just to see if there’s anyone else to hear that. And he did, only for the realization to set in, that he’s all alone here, with nothing familiar here.

It was a relief when he felt his peripheral being take up by darkness, the same one as he first held all the crystals, maybe this is a way back? He let the darkness taking up his vision, awaiting the rush of magic through him, assuring him that he’ll be back to the present.

When he blinked open his eyes, he was greeted by two familiar figures. The scientist breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of Impulse and Jevin, though the rough texture of what felt like  endstone was still enough for him to felt his heart skipping a beat.

At least he wasn’t alone this time.

“Umm... Which cycle are we in?” The duo was taken back by the question, they exchanged a confused look before replying.

“Umm...seven?” “Nineteen.”  Both of them said in sync.

“Thank god.” Cub mumbled to himself, finally being back from the past. Though throughout the whole end bust Jevin and Impulse were still warried of him but he ignored it. He’s back and it’s all that mattered.

***

So he was definitely worried, when he ended up in the past again, but this time, in another previous incarnation’s base.

Seconds ago, he was just trying to locate the  shulker box of crystals that he had buried as soon as he returned back from the past in the mess of overgrown crystals, but now he was plummeting down onto a land that he didn’t recognize.

His elytra quickly activated, letting him gliding down onto the floor of beacons gracefully. A quick scan around the environment made him sighed out in annoyance, he remembered the architecture style, quickly concluding that the crystals had brought him back to the past yet again.

He flew around what seems to be “ ConCorp ”, he can feel the memories of his previous incarnation roughly flashing through. His blood ran cold when he felt a strong surge of magic coursing through him, it was a lot stronger than the ones that the magical crystals possessed. He felt powerful, the fact that he used to having the magic at his fingertips. He can’t help but grin at the thought, he can vaguely hear high-pitch giggles and felt  _ something  _ nagging him at the back of his mind.

Cub’s thoughts were cut short as he recognized someone in the pieces of memories that was flying through in front of him, Scar was in almost all of them. He chuckled to himself when he realized that was probably why Scar is his platonic soulmate. Both of them seem to be running  ConCorp from what Cub can piece out.

He then started to fly around the world, gliding through the sky as the wind caressed him, looking down at the building-filled shopping district, yet again, no one could be seen.

He heard a bleep from his communicator. Confusion quickly took over his mind as he tried to figure out that why in the world was someone messaging him when he thought he was in a ghost town again. 

_ Surely there can’t be someone else here, right? _ He thought to himself. 

After last time’s incident, he had learnt that he was stranded the mist of what  Xisuma called “the shift” that happens at the end of each cycle, where the cycle eventually comes to its demise, going out with a bang as the whole world seems to ‘reset’. An explosion bringing every structure ever created with it, wiping any signs of life off the world, creating a clean slate for the new incarnation of the hermits to start off the  brand new cycle.

It was an unsettling piece of information to learn for sure but the scientist was able to handle the existentialism that followed suit.

He checked his communicator, seeing a name that felt familiar to him yet he has never seen before, Welsknight.

_ < _ _ Welsknight _ _ > Hey Cub! _

Saying that it was strange will be an understatement, Cub was torn between wanting to leave Wels alone or bringing Wels with him back to the latest cycle. He didn’t know if bringing someone from the past to the present is a good idea or not but he couldn’t just leave the knight here, not after knowing that The Shift will eventually get Wels.  So he started typing on the communicator.

_ <cubfan135> Hey Wels? _

_ <cubfan135> How’s it going? _

_ < _ _ Welsknight _ _ > Pretty good _

_ <cubfan135> This isn’t cycle 7 _

_ <cubfan135> What’s going on? _

_ < _ _ Welskinght _ _ > What do you mean cycle 7? _

_ < _ _ Welsknight _ _ > We’re still in cycle 6 my friend _

_ <cubfan135> Meet at hub? _

And with that, Cub went for the nearest nether portal. He still wasn’t sure if that’ll be a good idea but not that he was left with any choice. It was relatively quick for both of them to be at the nether hub, Wels standing beside a portal as he awaited Cub.

“Umm, what’s going on?” The knight asked with a nervous chuckle, staring at the scientist in front of him. Confusion was written all across the man’s face, as if it was mirroring Cub’s.

“We’re in cycle 7 for about months by now, why are you still here?” Cub explained, or at least tried to, he himself didn’t even know what’s going on either. He pulled out the  shulker box of crystals from his inventory as he tried to explain the time traveling to Wels again, still, it was fruitless.

“Hold on, Mr. Totally-Not-Vex. You have a little bit of a reputation as a little bit of a practical joker and I feel like you’re pulling my leg.” Wels quickly voiced his concern, he remembered the  ConVex , remembered how much of a nuisance Cub and his pranks were, he even vaguely knew the  ConVex cathedral from the past cycle. In his eyes, Cub wasn’t someone he can easily trust.

Cub had no clue what he was talking about, even with the flashes of memories, he still didn’t have the complete set for him to understand what happened, it was all just stray pieces of memories, like pieces of glass shards, unable to be put back together into its original form.

“ Nonononono It’s true! You  gotta trust me on this one. We’ll need to get to cycle 7 before The Shift, you have to trust me Wels.” He hastily stated, his mind racing to form the coherent reply as he failed to keep his calm. We can’t just leave Wels here alone.

The other man glare at the self-proclaimed time traveler with suspicion before letting out a sigh. “Fine, I trust you. I mean, I’d love to see a vision of the future...”

“I think I know a way to get back.” Cub really tried to mumble, now that Wels finally trusted him, he can’t just straight up tell the knight that he didn’t know how to get back. He vaguely remembered seeing a cursed nether portal that was in Area 77 in the flashbacks, maybe that was the way back.

“Wait, you think?” Apparently, Wels heard his uncertainty. “I thought you’ll know the way to get there?”

“I know how to, I promise. I’m just not sure about it.”

The flight to Area 77 was filled by only the sound of rockets going off and elytra gliding through the air. It was awkward per say but the only objective right now was to get back to the present as soon as possible. And it wasn’t like they can hear each other’s voices through the noises of rockets going off anyway.

It felt weird to step their feet through the cursed portal, Cub never thought about how bad of a decision it could be until the very second where both him and Wels were going through it.

Cub breathed out a sigh of relief as he realized that we were on the Spawn Island. They can barely see the shopping district which Wels was gawking at from the island. Both of them bid each other farewell before heading on their way. 

Cub smiled to himself as his half-finished pyramid came into view, a reminder that he was back in the present. As soon as he was back at his starter base, he made a detour for the end portal, quickly jump into the end before throwing the  shulker box of magical crystals into the void. He has had enough with the crystals’ shenanigans; he didn’t need those troublesome objects anymore.

On his way back to the pyramid, something that Wels has said was repeating in his mind, again and again as if it’s a broken record, something about the Vex... 

He knew about the vex, the little creatures in the depth of the woodland mansion that are, just as their names implied, annoying to deal with.

Though he can’t quite tell what the knight was talking about. He shook his thought away as he felt the need to contacting Scar about the magical crystal, the wizard needs to know about this. As he thought of Scar, his mind suddenly remembered about  ConCorp , it was still a fascinating thought. 

It was at this moment, his brain was flooded by the stray pieces of memories about the  ConVex , 

The high-pitch giggles that invaded his brain earlier, 

The pieces of Vex magic surrounding him, 

The cold and thrilling sensation of Vex magic flowing through his veins,

The almost painfully wide grin and the Vex mask practically plastered onto his face,

The unethical things that he and Scar did just to satisfy The Vex,

The  neverending pile of work that he was put through just for the meaningless blue gems,

The disappointment and fierceness of Them after either him or Scar had made the slightest mistake,

The torment The Vex put him through for disobeying a single order,

The feeling of the control of his body being pried away from him by Them,

It was all too much for Cub to handle all the sudden, he tried to make his mind stop yet the giggles of The Vex grew louder and louder, his eyes flashing between the normal black and the Vex magic blue. It was all too overwhelming, all the psychological trauma suddenly being picked up by him, by the wrong Cub.  **_ He just wanted for all of these to stop- _ **

… and it did, the voices stopped, the memories, the overwhelming feelings, everything just... stopped. He was alone, in the pyramid, a couple of  shulker boxes of building materials beside him. 

He let out a sigh of relief as They finally stopped, he didn’t want to think of it for even one second, he just wanted to forget about it and crack on with building the great pyramid.

_ He knew too much about something he shouldn’t, there’s no way back anymore but hey, at least he can pretend nothing happened. _

_. _

_. _

_. _

_...Right? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha Vex related content goes brrr. I felt like I should really write about those magical crystal considering that Cub managed to time travel TWICE! It also opened up so many ConVex angst potential soooo oops my hands slipped.
> 
> By the way, I am currently working on both a small animation & school at the moment so I think the next chapter will probably come out later considering how much things I'll have to deal with in just the span of a week.


	8. It's on the papers so it must be true

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was trying to keep the weekly update schedule but I've been sick for the first whole week of February so yeah, here's the long-awaited chapter that happened to be 4k words :D Also 10k words pog

The mayoral race candidate stared out of one of the huge windows of her totally-not-evil base. She had been standing idly by there, just staring at the place if the Boomers’ demolition site. She can feel the mix of anger and annoyance coursing through her veins. 

She knew Bdubs could be biased but she never thought Impulse and Tango will join in with him on this prank too. 

She groaned in frustration as she tried to think of a way for her to take revenge for the prank that she paid for. She can’t stand letting the trio be carving her competitor’s slogan into the current dig site beside her base but technically they did their job and continue pursuing revenge will only ruin her reputation. 

Who knew if Scar was actually behind the prank all along? She won’t let him get the win on this one, _she’ll make sure of that._

She opened up her communicator and started texting. 

_< falsesymmetry> Hey Tango, could you pop on over to the Boomers ‘project’ for a quick chat? :)_

That was sufficient enough, the emphasis on the word ‘project’ and the smiley face at the end delivered the message nice and clear. 

~ 

Tango read the message over and over again, he wasn’t sure why he did that, maybe he was hoping for the message to be just another figment of his imagination after days of overworking himself. 

If he knew False will come after him, he wouldn’t join in on Bdubs’ little prank. He exhaled shakily, the nerve was getting to him. Tango hastily fished out his communicator. 

_< Tango> On my way! _

The flight from Toon Town to False’s base was short, just a few flight rockets were needed but still enough time for him to calm his nerves. If False really was seeking revenge, she wouldn’t just go for him and him only, right? At least he hoped so. 

“Good afternoon False, how are you today?” Tango swiftly landed onto the platform, greeting False with a small bow. “Hi. Welcome back to the site.” The annoyance was easy for Tango to pick up, which make his urge to grin at the success of the prank even more. 

“I assume now that you’ve called me over to pay us for the fine job we did, right?” Tango joked, referring to the ‘Vote Scar’ that was being carved in via explosion even if he knew that False won’t let him go with the diamonds that easily. 

“I mean it was a fine job, not quite what I expected but umm...” 

“Hmm we must’ve got our message a bit wrong or something...” Tango would’ve just let his smugness being displayed but it’s False who he’s talking to, she has dozens of tricks up her sleeves, he can’t be careless around. 

“Yeah you misspelled the word ‘False’.” 

“Well hey, I mean spelling had never been our strong suit. W-we had trouble spelling Scar as it was so yeah.” Both of them burst into giggles at the small mistake that apparently occurred, the conversation, to Tango’s knowledge, was being derailed, to his benefit. 

“So...” Tango’s thought was being completely debunked as the small smile on False face was quickly dropped in just a blink of an eye, being replaced with coldness with a splash of anger and annoyance. 

“I don’t have the payment ready yet but I’m going to promise to not retaliate just yet. I have some plan ready for Bdubs and Impulse.” It wasn’t long before Tango realized that the builder was luring him into a false sense of security, the mischievous grin on her face was just enough to prove it. 

_What was False trying to do here?_

“So retaliation is coming for them but you’re kind enough to offer a truce?” 

“Yeah, I’ve got a little idea for a project over in the shopping district. If you help me with that, I won’t get you back for this.” 

“I am onboard one hundred percent. I don’t want to incur your wrath so show me what you got.” He should’ve rethink about this offer. 

Yeah, he doesn’t want to experience False’s wrath but it felt... wrong... What about Impulse and Bdubs? Shouldn’t him be trying to help his friends out of this too? He knew this wasn’t his idea but he agreed to it. Also, giving False what practically was an IOU wasn’t exactly the wisest choice, who knew what plan she has for him. 

But it wasn’t like he has any choice... 

* * *

When he initially thought about helping False out, he didn’t think he’ll be doing this... He watched as False set up a temporary dirt platform just a few blocks away from the mooshroom biome. It didn’t take long for the platform to be filled with hostile mobs, False turned her head around the check for any danger behind her and Tango caught a glimpse of her. 

Tango gulped as he saw something in False’s eyes, something that makes the hair on his back stand. “Tango?” The cheery voice was completely a juxtaposition with whatever she was doing. 

“Yeah?” 

“I got one of them on me, is the trap ready?” False asked with her head tilted left, gesturing at Scar’s Chestmonster shop and their trap inside of it. Tango nodded. 

Tango will be lying if he says that he doesn’t like causing shenanigans to the other hermits but he wasn’t sure about False’s tactic. Was it even legal? He was too afraid to ask. By the looks of things, False was leading in the mayoral race and have one of the highest chances of winning, the redstoner will certainly be glad to not be on the opposite side of her. 

Tango shoved those thoughts away, he was just helping a friend out after a prank, there’s nothing much to it, it’s just some shenanigans. _No one will be hurt, not with those god armors,_ he assured himself. 

After a few nights of work, they’re finally done with loading zombies into all the launchers, most of the shops in the district were hit, ‘for efficiency’, False claimed. 

Tango bid her a farewell before leaving her to the stakeout on the roof of the Boomers, waiting for unsuspecting hermits to accidentally set off the traps for her to have a chance to be the ‘hero’ and save them from the zombies. 

It wasn’t long for Wels and Cub to set off the traps, letting False be finally able to swoop in gracefully with her sword and slain the hostile mobs before quickly flying away, leaving the confused hermits with a ‘False for Mayor’ poster. 

~ 

The sleep master walked through the lawn that belongs to his neighbor, the footsteps being almost muffled and being replaced by the sound of the overgrown grass ruffling, scratching against his jeans. 

He hasn’t been here for about a month or two by now, ever since the incident revolving around Mount Goatmore. It felt strange, unfamiliar for him to be here again. It wasn’t exactly a bad choice for him to flee to where his current town stands to be fair, no matter how much he’d hoped to reconcile with his friend, saying that Doc was acting strange was an understatement. 

He looked around the seemingly abandoned half-a-mansion, hoping for his lousy neighbor to at least poke his head out to get his pesky trespasser away. 

He won’t admit out loud but he missed his friend, he missed the playful banter exchanging between them, he missed all the small pranks that they’ve pulled on each other, he missed listening to Doc talking about weird and possibly an overkill of a project during the biweekly reunion between Beef, Etho and both of them… 

He missed just seeing his friend walking around his half of the mansion instead of just burying himself in work and hiding inside the concealed space inside Mount Goatmore, only signs of Doc still being alive were just occasion messages from him on the communicators, rambling something about the GOAT or whatever that was, Bdubs can be sure. 

“Doc?” He called out, just hoping for the slim chance of the creeper hybrid being coincidentally out in his garden looking for materials that he had run out of, actually, calling it a slim chance will be an understatement and Bdubs can only hope.

"Doc, c'mon. Just a reply is all I wanted. Everyone is worried about you. I just need a word from you." Bdubs yelled once again, he didn't even know where he should be shouting his words at. Doc was nowhere to be found and he could be anywhere.

* * *

“What do think about Xisuma?” Cub asked, sliding the resume in his hand across the desk towards Cleo when he was responded with a head tilt and a puzzled look from said zombie. 

“We could use a reporter like him, especially with the election or whatever they called their shenanigans.” Cleo simply stated, eyes quickly glancing through the resume as Cub nodded along the other reporter’s words. 

“Yeah, gotta get all those hot goss.” The pharaoh chuckled to himself. They did indeed need those stories, having something in their hand for them to stir the pot a bit, just sprinkling in some more drama and chaos into the mayoral race. 

“How’s the volume going?” Cub asked, turning around to get a good look at their bulletin board full of notes 

“Figured that the headline has to be about Mumbo, last one was selling like crazy.” The zombie leaned back into her seat. A grin grew on her face as she ran her hand through the small pile of diamond on their desk. 

“I mean, the absurdity of the fact that he’s running for mayor without even knowing it was enough for it to be selling.” 

“You got a point.” 

* * *

It wasn’t that hard for Joe to think of a solution to a problem that he had caused just for the solution itself to work out. 

Everything worked just fine on paper, it’s just that he didn’t realize how hard it’ll be for him to find a wolf pack that won’t attack him on sight. Joe sighed to himself, of course everything works on paper but not in practice! 

Wrangling a few wolves was quite manageable, the problem was taming them, or to be precise, getting enough bones to tame them. 

He wasn’t expecting to be encountering packs after packs of wolves that’ll never accept his peace offerings, he never thought the chance of it happening was so high when he got the first few dogs, yet here he was, out in spruce forests, rolling dices with the god of luck. 

It took him a little over a week to remember that, maybe he should’ve just bred up the four dogs that he has gotten on the first day of the now meaningless quest. 

It took him another day to finally getting the color of the dye for collars to match with the color of the fur. Discarded scraps of wool sheets being painted with countless shades of light gray, paintbrushes and mixing palettes littered all over the small set up beside all the dogs. 

He just hopes the neighboring Bdubs was too busy with running a mayoral campaign to realize the amount of art supplies had went missing. 

Leading the dogs into the shopping district was easy enough, only a bunch of leads and extra attention to those canines were needed. He tried his best to act sneaky around the shopping district but with the number of hermits walking around and checking out shops, it was almost impossible to go unnoticed with all these dogs around him. 

A simple lie about needing to capture some zombies for a non-existing iron farm was apparently enough to trick the sleep master BdoubleO to put away his daily task of sleeping the night away. 

He was glad that Xisuma chose the mooshroom island as their shopping district as the only mob the dogcatcher need to be worried about is just phantoms, which won’t be spawning anyway as he silently thanked himself for sleeping the night before this whole operation. 

He snuck around the island, strategically placing the tamed dogs on places that he already plotted down onto a map of the district. Even in the dark of the night he still needed to be aware of his surrounding, he knew there’s definitely going to have some hermits looking for resources in a clutch. 

The adventurer slowly become more and more used to the procedures. Find the location, remove the leash, make sure the dog is seated, and repeat. And by the dawn, he was almost done. With all the canines let loose, he was confident that in just a few days, complaints about the stray dogs will be flooding the office and his campaign promise will be deemed helpful. 

* * *

“Joe. Thank you so much for meeting me here outside the Herald today.” Xisuma greeted Joe with a small smile that was just barely visible under his  helmet.

“I'm glad to be  here. It’s a beautiful day.” Joe replied with a small nod.

“A beautiful day indeed, it’s always a wonderful day on  Hermitcraft , isn’t it?”  Xisuma pointed out as he looked around the Herald. “Anyways, let’s get going with the interview. I’ve seen that you’re running a campaign, right?” he continued.

“Yes, I have.” Joe nodded once more as he spoke. “But there’s something that’s bothering me a little bit... I know Cleo’s a journalist and I know Cub’s a journalist but are you really a newspaperman? Because I was expecting it to be professional...”

The questioning didn’t exactly catch the admin off guard as he pulled out his press hat from his inventory, swiftly putting it on over his helmet. “How ‘bout now?” He asked with a small laugh, a grin grew at Joe’s nod of approval.

“So, now that I have my look complete...”  Xisuma gestured at his black suit with a green tie, a nod to the best team, green team, before moving on with the interview. “What do you plan to do if you become mayor?”

Xisuma looked up from his notepad when the only answer he got was just silence, he was greeted by the confused look on Joe’s face. “I’m sorry  Xisuma but I'm actually running for dogcatcher.” His eyebrow was raised as he corrected the reporter.

“My bad, I haven’t prepared for this interview very well. I thought there’s a mayoral campaign but you’re running for dogcatcher?” He quickly apologized, fumbling through his notes for at least some kind of backup plan.

“ Y’know , I try to go where I’m needed and when I look at the shopping district, I don’t see the need for a mayor but I do see a bunch of random stray dogs everywhere. And some signs saying Joe Hills for dogcatcher.” Joe explained as if he didn’t just spend the night before the interview wrangling tamed dogs that somehow passed as strays and placed them all over the shopping district.

“Yeah...” The man in the bee armor trailed off as he jotted something down onto his notes. “Wait a minute, I’ve seen some dogs right here. How many of these dogs have you spotted around here?”  Xisuma wondered.

He never noticed there’s stray dogs all around the district before until Joe brought it up. Have they been here all along? That can’t be the case, can it? He was just here a couple days ago restocking his shops, how can he had missed them?

“I think I’ve spotted a dozen, or maybe two dozen of them around here.” Joe said as he led the reporter to the cluster of dogs that definitely don’t belong to him.  Xisuma stared at those canines, completely puzzled about how and why are those strays there.

“ If they’re cats, there’s not going to be any  problem. Cats scare away creepers but dogs on the other hand, they scare away the  shoppers and how is the shopping district  functional if we have everyone living in  fear all the time?” The adventurer continued on as both of them  walked around the district .

As if the dogs are following them,  Xisuma kept finding more and more dogs  everywhere, some of them just right beside Joe’s poster.  Joe can only hope for the admin to not look into the placement of the digs that much.

Xisuma checked the clock on the h ead up display  inside his helmet, just realizing that it was almost time for him to meet up with Scar for another interview. “Thank you for  giving me this opportunity to interview you, Joe. But due  to  my schedule being full, I have to end the interview .”

“Yeah it’s okay  Xisuma . Glad to  be in the interview, I’ll see you next  time.” Both of them bid their farewell as Joe flew back to his  vineyard while  Xisuma headed towards the town hall, awaiting Scar for the interview.

Joe breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized that none of the hermits  find out his actual plan - c ausing  chaos just for a campaign promise to get his way to covering the diamond throne with lava-  and still staying unsuspecting.  Looks like his plan was going well so far.

It didn’t take  long for  Xisuma to  arrive back at  Hermiton Herald , storing the notes into a barrel in his  office for safekeeping before meeting  up with Scar.

“ Oh ,  Xisuma .” The sudden sound of Scar’s voice  from just right outside of the building made him jumped a bit. He thought they were supposed to be  meeting up at the town hall. “ I see you there, busy as a bee at the presses .”  Scar continued with a pun that was both expected and unexpected.

“ Oh hello Scar. I was just filing away my reports from the previous interview.” The reporter adjusted his cuff links while he walked out of his office, meeting the mayoral race candidate face to face just right outside the building.

“You’re a dapper-looking bee, by the way.” Scar pointed out, obviously liking the reporter outfit. “Well thank you! You’re looking good too! Loving that suit.” The reporter responded with a smile before start making his way to the town hall with Scar.

“Just to confirm, you’re running for mayor, right?”  Xisuma hesitantly asked, already learning from his past mistake from the interview with the dogcatcher.

A flash of confusion appeared on Scar’s face but quickly faded as he answered the questions. “Yes, I’m running for the mayor.”  Xisuma nodded at the answer, glad to know that there wasn’t another position that the hermit was running for.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the town hall where they continued on with the interview since where else is more suitable for an interview about the mayoral race and its  candidates other than the town hall itself?

“You want to be sitting on the diamond throne essentially, am I correct?”  Xisuma double-checked. “Oh yeah, that’ll be nice.” Scar simply stated, sparing the detailed thought of the familiarity of said throne. He wasn’t even sure if he was overthinking or not. He wanted to voice his concern to the admin who was just standing right in front of him but something, a small voice at the back of his mind stopped him from doing so.

“Oh, by the way, have you by chance taken a taste of those diamonds, they’re very tasty.”

The question caught  Xisuma off guard, even more than when he learned that Joe is actually running for dogcatcher. Sure, he had heard of Scar’s diamond licking habit from some whispers of gossips from a certain hermit but it was all just a rumor. He didn’t expect Scar just downright confirming the rumors non chalantly . 

“I’ve heard about this, you’d lick diamonds.” Scar shot him another confused look at the words. The  terraformer still doesn’t understand why people thought that was a big deal. “Yeah, this doesn’t seem like a weird thing to me but apparently some people think it’s weird. But it’s delightful, actually.” Scar defended.

He liked the taste, the texture of the cool gem. He always thought it was normal to like it, he’s been doing it for years and he never saw anything wrong with it. But he had noted that there was something else under the coolness of the diamond, it felt tingly and he felt as if small zaps of electricity flowing through him. He couldn’t quite explain it but he simply brushed it off, deeming it small enough of a sensation that he can easily ignore.

“Anyways, my friend, let’s conduct an interview for the Herald.”  Xisuma said when he remembered what they were supposed to be doing. “Can we do it on the diamond throne?” It was a weird request from Scar but the reporter agreed to it.  _ It’s probably just Scar’s desire to win the race _ , he thought.

“What was the reason you decided to jump into this mayoral race?”

“I was actually told by  Bdubs that I should run to bring organization and beauty to the shopping district.” Scar explained as he gestured at the unkept land outside of the town hall, patches of grass littered all around shops, the hermits' futile attempt at getting rid of the mycelium around the surrounding of their shops.

“Just look at the shopping district,  Xisuma . It’s covered with  those ugly mycelium , it’s a complete eyesore. If I become the mayor, I’ll be getting rid of the mycelium, all of them, no exception.” The interviewee continued, deep into the thoughts about those purple fungi to be aware of the way he sounded when he was expressing his hatred for mycelium.

“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think so,  Xisuma . The mycelium is actually bringing down the value of the shopping district with just the look alone. I haven’t even started on the allergies that it is causing!”

“That’s quite an interesting learn. I’ve never thought of that before.”  Xisuma continued on with the next question. “What would you do and what’s your plan for the shopping district if you become mayor?”

“I will bring hope, I’ll bring beauty to the shopping district. We’ll have trees, pathways, organization and, best of all, more diamonds. The shopping district needs more greenery than we thought. Think about it, there’s only one single tree on this island when we first settled down here. It is lacking so many plant lives. With that, we could bring economic vitality back and saving  Hermitcraft from descending into pure chaos.”

“I’ll have to agree with you on this one, Scar. It’ll be nice to finally see some more trees in the shopping district, and no doubt it’ll look wonderful with you around. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to able to carry out this interview with you, Scar.”

“My pleasure, Xisuma.”

* * *

“I don’t think people will be interested in the mayoral campaign as much now.” 

“They’ll stay interested if there’s nothing else in the media, we still have a chance.” 

“The mayoral race madness is dying down, they’re just repeating their campaign promises over and over at this point. We need the controversies.” 

“Then let’s start stirring things up a bit. Xisuma has some interview reports in his journal.” 

“Time to work on the headlines.” 

~ 

It didn’t take long for the misleading headlines to make it onto the Herald, scandalous news titles about almost all mayoral race candidates spreading like wildfire from just the gossips between hermits. 

Both Cub and Cleo grinned at the thought of mayoral campaigns descending into pure chaos. Maybe they weren’t making as much profit from the newspapers but they were definitely enjoying the madness that they’ve helped adding onto. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I am aware of the fact that all the interviews happened a lot earlier in the canon timeline but I can change it up just because... I can >:D


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter! Sorry it took so long! By the way, some events are changed up for ✨ da plot ✨

Both of them weren’t exactly sure what happened. Seconds ago Cub was just talking about the weird series of flashbacks of memories that didn’t even belong to him to Scar but now they’re flying through the sky and following the direction of an odd streak of light that they just spotted flying through the air. 

“Cub, I think it landed in the jungle.” Scar informed his friend, raising his voice just enough for Cub to still be able to hear him despite the sound of rockets going off as they both flew along the best approximation of the trail of the unknown light source. 

It wasn’t exactly hard for the duo to find it as the sun sets, the shadows that the tall jungle trees cast onto the land only helped them. Both of them glided gracefully down into the jungle, landing on top of one of the canopies. 

Scar was the first one that dived down onto the ground, watching the blue flames around him just staying in place instead of spreading and engulfing the whole jungle. Cub followed suit as he realized it was more than just some aircraft crashing. 

Scar’s eyes lit up when he heard a chirp from the scraps of the destroyed plane. He safely navigated his way into the ring of flames, finding a scarlet macaw sitting in the middle of the ruined aircraft. He looked at the parrot, he felt his blood ran cold for some reason that he can’t quite tell as the parrot’s soulless eyes stared back at him. 

“Cub?” Scar called out, it didn’t take long for him to see the pharaoh’s eyes were transfixed on something else, something more interesting... 

Scar turned to see the piles of diamonds and light blue crystals scattered around the mess. The cold blue taking over his thoughts, as he walked towards it, completely disregarding the flames surrounding it. 

He didn’t even realize that the fire was doing nothing to his physical form, mind completely lost in the piles of riches. He noticed there was something else in the pile, _a mask._

_A mask that looked just like what Cub had just described to him._

With that thought, Scar turned to face Cub once again. He watched as the pharaoh looking at another identical mask hesitantly as if something inside him was telling him to put it on even if he didn’t want to. 

The terraformer’s eyes wandered around, searching for at least some sort of clue. When his eyes stopped back at Cub, he realized that the redstoner was putting on the mask, yet his movement seemed involuntary. 

Just as he saw that, Scar felt his hand moving without his permission, the jerky movement of his hand felt like it was trying to put on the mask too. Although it was already too late when he realized that, the mask was forced onto his face and he felt himself completely blacking out. 

Before the darkness consumed him, he could hear high-pitched giggles that were growing louder and louder surrounding him, he tried to pry the mask off but it was no use. 

*** 

Cub struggled to open his eyes, the pounding headache seems to not want the man to wake up, or at least open his eyes. It didn’t take him long to remember that he was nowhere near his pyramid. 

His eyes finally snapped open as he heard the rustles of a bush, head quickly turned towards the source of said noise as his eyes quickly scanned the surrounding. Oh, it was just a parrot… 

The red and blue and yellow of its feathers popped amongst the greenery around it. It looked just like other parrots, though for some reason it was already tamed by Cub, even when he has no recollection of it happening. 

The parrot landed onto his shoulder as he wandered around the dense jungle, he only vaguely remember what happened and… _wait, where’s Scar?_ He remembered that the man was with him, searching or following something… 

“Scar?” Cub wondered out aloud, he doubted that Scar could hear him through the dense jungle, if Scar was even here to begin with, but still, a man can dream. “Cub?” The pharaoh breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the familiar voice. 

“I found these masks laying around but there’s nothing else.” Scar trailed off as he handed one of the said masks to Cub. Scar swore he saw there was a light blue glow in Cub’s eyes as he took the mask. “Do you have any clue?" Scar asked as he closely examined the mask again, it was a bit uncanny when he realized the masks fit them precisely, as if they are specifically tailored for them. 

_Could just be a coincidence though_ , Scar thought. “No, I don’t think so...” It took a while for Cub to finally answer the question. The redstoner knew this mask is familiar, that the feeling was more than just scattered memories from his past lives. 

No, it was more than that, yet it felt like the memories were forcefully wiped, as if he had found out way too much and they weren’t happy about it. 

Cub shook his head clear; his thoughts were tangled, it was odd but he didn’t want to look into it, they were still stuck in a jungle thousand of blocks away from the main island after all! “I think we should find a way back.” 

“Yeah, let’s fly back. I hate it here.” 

* * *

“Scar, what happened?” The campaign manager asked, nay, demanded an answer. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Scar muttered, which only earned a glare from Bdubs. It wasn’t like he didn’t know what’s happening, it’s just that he didn’t know the reason why everyone is making a huge deal out of it. 

It’s just licking some diamonds; it wasn’t like he’s _eating_ them. 

Bdubs simply handed him the volume of Hermiton Herald. Scar read through the title again, he already read the whole volume but maybe, just maybe, he missed out on some small details that the campaign manager was referring to. 

“Yeah, I’ve read through the whole thing and I still don’t see what I did wrong here.” The candidate shrugged, still denying there was anything wrong here. 

“Do you realized that normal people don’t exactly have licking diamond as a hobby, right?” It didn’t surprise Bdubs to see Scar slowly shook his head at the question. Scar’s strange obsession with diamonds was still mind-boggling for him, it didn’t seem like just the urge to be in possession of the diamond throne on a materialistic viewpoint anymore, it’s something else... 

Scar’s behavior has been strange lately, ever since he was being nominated to be running for mayor, the terraformer felt like someone else all of a sudden. Bdubs can’t tell if this is how Scar had always been or if he’s actually onto something. 

“I mean, I won’t call it a hobby exactly. It’s just some sort of treat! Y’know.” Scar shrugged, once again quickly brushing off Bdubs' words of concern, his attention quickly went back to the diamond throne in the town hall, just staring fondly at the pile of shiny blues. 

“Scar, as your campaign captain, I highly doubt that’ll look good for reputation.” Bdubs stated bluntly, he had to, he knows Scar has thousands of ways to denying the oddity of the news headline. He needed to save the mayoral campaign, somehow. 

“I have an idea! What if we start handing out free diamond popsicles so the hermits can taste it and find out themselves?” 

“Scar I don’t think that’ll work.” 

“C’mon! Don’t knock it until you try it!” Scar insisted as he shoved a light blue popsicle in front of Bdubs’ face. _Wait…_ _where did he get that?_

“How do you keep them cold?” The builder wasn’t even sure if Scar was serious or not anymore, but the popsicle looked, well, normal! In its own way at least. 

“Magic” Scar said with a grin as he waited for the shorter man to take the diamond popsicle. Bdubs reasonably hesitated, there was this weird glow to the popsicle but his mind simply brushed it off as the magic that Scar mentioned. 

After a few small, hesitant licks, making sure it was in fact edible, Bdubs was finally ready to put the quite large popsicle into his mouth, licking and letting it melt in his mouth. 

It tasted just as he expected, cold and minty, the sugary taste was a bit too much for Bdubs but it wasn’t exactly surprising. Though he felt something... something about the sensation instead of the taste, it felt like small zaps of electricity, not enough to cause harm or pain but it was enough for him to feel the way his tongue tingled. 

“Look! I said I am correct, didn’t I? It’s edible!” Scar exclaimed as soon as he saw the slightest of satisfaction on Bdubs’ face. “I still don’t get how this works.” Bdubs replied bluntly, his words were still slurred as his mouth was still trying to get over the tingling sensation. 

“Does it really matter though? The hermits are gonna love it, that’s the only important part!” 

* * *

Both of them landed on the platform, seeing each other again for their meeting about the mayoral campaign. It went on just as usual, Grian will tease Mumbo about how ridiculous the mayoral candidate looked with all the “mustaches” shaved out, joking around as they discussed their recent plans for the mayoral race and how they can promote their campaign. 

“So what do ya think about the commercial?” Mumbo asked with a small laugh as he talked about the ad that felt like more of a mustache fever dream than what it was supposed to be. “Could use more mustaches.” 

“I have to agree with you on this one.” they both laughed, still unaware of the changes around them, bantering as their focus shift towards each other than where it was supposed to be on Grumbot. 

Mumbo was the first one to turn around, to see how his creation was hacked. 

***

Iskall walked around the shopping district, they were supposed to just go to check on the Gorgeous Intelligent Fountain of Truth, but they made a detour before heading towards the fountain. They went through the papers, reading through all the requests or just wishes in general, trying to find some sort of pattern to it to be used as a campaign promise. 

They didn’t really need to do it, the fountain is an AI anyway, it can sort through all these just fine! Iskall won’t admit it but they were just trying to take their mind off from the other AI in the shopping district, the one that they just sabotaged. 

***

“Seriously Iskall, that’s the only thing you can pull off?” Mumbo chuckled lightly at the sight of Grumbot, it just looked like Iskall giving them a changeover, just reprogramming it to show a magenta heart. Mumbo’s chuckles stop abruptly as he saw Grian’s reaction. 

“They’ve rebranded my son...” Grian sounded... devastated. Mumbo can feel shivers traveling down his spine just from hearing Grian’s voice. Grian took out a quill and a diamond and immediately started writing. 

“Grumbot, are you okay?” The builder felt his heart cracked as he saw the frown on the AI’s face, as if it was trying to hint at its creators for help even when his answer said otherwise... 

**_GET GORGEOUS_ **

No... that couldn’t be it... Mumbo can only watch as Grian pulled out another diamond, shaky hands frantically writing down the next question. **_“_ **Mumbo for mayor, come on Grumbot you can do it...” 

Yet again, another frown, another **_GET GORGEOUS_ **... 

They immediately realized what’s wrong, it wasn’t just a rebranding... Iskall had completely reprogrammed Grumbot. 

***

Iskall couldn’t tell whether the prank was too much or not, they were just messing around with their friends, right? It’s just another small little prank for Mumbo. They’re sure the redstoner can fix the problem in just a flash. 

***

Both of them thought that they’ve just made everything worst... Grian impulsively tried to fix the AI but to no avail, it didn’t work. Mumbo was the next one to try and now they’re hoping for it to work yet at the same time too afraid to try it out. 

_It’s election day tomorrow, what will happen if they’ve lost their secret weapon?_

Grian sucked in a shaky breath as he took the quill into his hand once again. Mumbo shot him a concerned look, the mustached man wasn’t sure if letting Grian be the one to do it will be a good idea, or even a well-thought idea, knowing how oddly sentimental the builder is towards the AI.

“Tomorrow is the election day, HELP”

**_ WHAT IS LOVE? _ **

**_ AM _ ** **_ I LOVED, OR USED? _ **

**_ WHAT IS MY PURPOSE? _ **

**_DO I HAVE CONTROL?_ **

**_AM I GOOD?_ **

**_ WHAT IF I FAIL MY LOVED ONES? _ **

**_ DOES ANYTHING REALLY MATTER? _ **

**_ WHY MUST MY LIFE MAKES ME ACHE? _ **

“ Grumbot …” Grian trailed off with what Mumbo can only describe as a heart-wrenching sob. The mayoral race candidate was only able to calm down from the shock of seeing the AI having a complete meltdown, it felt way too human... What had he  done? 

The messages won’t stop flooding their inventory, and reading them just made everything hurts even more than it already was. The pattern of self-awareness and existentialism... It was all too much...

**_ ARE MY CREATORS HAPPY FOR ME? _ **

**_ GOODBYE DADS _ **

**_ GOODBYE DADS _ **

**_ GOODBYE DADS _ **

“Goodbye...  _ dads _ ...” the only thing Grian can do was to sob quietly as he watched something that he loved so dearly sending its goodbye messages...

_"No..."_

_"Grumbot... we have failed you..."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just gonna point out how "funny" it is for Cub, like the man just wanted to tell his friend about the disturbing flashacks he's been having and then, BOOM! The source of trauma itself is here.
> 
> Also yes I rewrote Grumbot's meltdown, it's for the angst, but still technically Mumbo is responsible for it, just saying /lh  
> \-----  
> Yeah this chapter took a long while, I was more focused on drawing instead of writing. You can find some hermitcraft fanarts on [my Twitter](https://twitter.com/AnthoSaysSmth)
> 
> or you can find me on [Tumblr](https://anthosaidsmth.tumblr.com) if you like your drawings with extra dose of HC shitposts. New chapter coming soon I swear! The mayoral race is almost over & y'know that we're finally getting to the juicy parts ;) (Spoiler: It's chaos :D)

**Author's Note:**

> ...I have to confess, I haven't watched all the videos from some of the hermits' (xB, False, X, Keralis, Jevin & Stress), only some episodes as for the writing of chapter 3 (dw, we're still kinda a long way from the actual turf war so I think I still got most of the things correct) but I'd like some help with catching up on said hermits' videos, so if you'd like to help me out, leave a comment about it. The help would be greatly appreciated.


End file.
